School

I am having another great weekend at school. We have finished all the muscles bones and ligaments, we have just to learn them off by heart now!

This afternoon we have been working on our skills of touch, by trying to feel the cranial rhythm, most of us could and wow was it amazing. A very subtle movement which once you were in tune with it, you could feel you hands being moved as well, the art was to feel with out inflicting your own respiration or heart beat on to the patient and also to be feeling the cranial rhythm and not their heart beat or respiration.
The movement changed from person to person and seeing as we had done range of motion in the vertebrae the day before we could see how this corresponded to their stiff / problem side.

As the patient we could feel the movement too, followed by a sense of relief or emotion some reported having headaches including me!.

We were amazing that such a small movement could cause these feelings, of course the occiput is a highly nerved area, but if our hands can create such feelings what sort of feelings would a trauma induce?

The head teacher is sure that horses experience "headaches" but has no way of proving it.

I also found time to look up the archives of the previous thesis and yes some one had done one on bridles and bits, but no comparison between bit less and with bit.

So the thesis talked at length about the different bits their effect on the horse mainly from a riders point of view then the osteopathy view.

20 horses were used for the study at different stages of education and by ridden by different levels of rider.
As I had said in my post answer to Di, both cause tension in the TMJ this was confirmed. 10 of the horses had pathologies but only 8 out of the 20 had pathologies caused by the bit its self.
Showing Tension in the TMJ and pathologies of c0/c1 and the withers, this she felt was caused directly by the bit how ever she also stated in her conclusion it was due to lack of relationship between rider and the bit that caused this problem. ( in other words in-experienced hands followed by a lack of understanding by the rider of the horses bio mechanics).
Also in her conclusion she went on to state that few of the riders had tried more than 2 bits for their horse or worked with dentist to find the best biting for their horse.
The study was carried out in France in 2007.

An interesting study but as we thought open to many other factors but also confirming what we already knew, that the key to a happy pathology free horse is good hands and an independent seat and a thorough understanding of the horses bio mechanics.